What's next for Elektron?

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#4944

I think the Syntakt is better than the Machinedrum.

I don’t give a shit about how “innovative” it is (musicians can innovate too, you know), it just fits the music I make better than the older boxes. It’s neither greater or lesser than anything else, just different.

The inability of people to tell the difference between something not being for them and something spelling the end of a company’s creative soul is as funny as it is ridiculous.

I though the AR was a bag of shit, but look at what @blushresponse can do with it. The same for @jeanne with the ST and DT. For every warrior a weapon.

For my use case, Elektron are making better gear than they were a few fabled years ago (remember, when they discontinued the silver boxes cos no-one was buying them). Obviously people differ in what they do/don’t like but I’ve no idea how any of this translates to being a problem.

Fuck knows how this makes me a fanboy (especially as I only own an M:S these days) but that is the language of the unimaginative edgelord, not the sort of grown ups that used to keep me chatting on here all day.

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#4945

I didn’t watch the video but let’s just say that she succeeded with her video.

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#4946

I actually totally agree with you. I have a syntakt and got a MD and MNM recently and I think ST is better. It’s funny because part of me agrees with this video, just in my experience. Like I can find myself feeling like I need to add another box just to do some specific thing and that ends up overwhelming me. But that is a me problem. Although I do think that elektron do it somewhat intentionally to get you to buy more stuff. But again, that’s kinda a me problem.

The responses here are pretty funny though. I feel like people take the criticism of the instruments they like as criticism of themselves and their choices.

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#4947

Fact of the matter is current Elektron instruments have immensely bigger sweetspots than the old ones. The trade off is a lot of the more experimental things that you could do before with them are only available on the flagships which are still one generation older.

Doesn’t mean one or the other is better, but nobody can ignore the similarity between the syntakt and the cycles, nor between the AHFX and the ah MK2.

Still wondering why Elektron never bothered to add parameters slides back into their current line of instruments… Probably a sweet spot thing.

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#4948

I think they did some research and found that about 5% of users ever actually used it, and it was more often confusing than useful for most people. But I think that is all down to the implementation rather that the actual value of the feature. I think it is probably just because I haven’t used it enough, but every time I go to mess with it I end up scratching my head a bit.

EDIT: personally the added benefits from the trig page recording note lengths into the sequencer totally outweighs the features that are missing from the digi’s compared to the OT and MD/MNM (I haven’t used either of the analogs) not having note lengths recorded in basically makes live recording in those devices useless to me, and I use that every single time I use the device, where I only sometimes want freely assignable LFOs or slide trig’s.

#4949

For those doubting my assertion that Elektron is run by the suits, here’s a direct quote from Ess when Elektron was much more open:

Kinda relevant for ‘What’s Next for Elektron?’

Edit: another thing I miss about old(er) Elektron was the level of engagement. We get almost none now :frowning:

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#4950

Came into the world of Elektron really late (heard about the Octatrack for years but it just seemed like this mysterious thing and I had no idea what it even did at all or how it worked so I continued with my MV8800 and was happy).

Finally got a Digitakt last year and working in software development myself and having played with so many VSTs and hardware bits over the years I find any talk of things being boring or not innovative baffling and a hint nostalgia clique snobby.

It’s one of the most beautiful cohesive chunks of user experience I’ve ever come across even outside of music. It’s as user friendly and pick up and play as my guitar. Maybe it’s just copying old features from the old flagship models but as a new Elektron user I think they’re amazing and I’ve been totally won over. Especially with how hackable it is via midi assigns / loopback etc. And looking at videos of the Analog 4, Octatrack etc the Digitakt just seems incredibly playable and unfiddly in comparisson. So I hope they continue doing what they’re doing especially the gamechanging firmware updates. Even just seeing the constant song mode song mode song mode moans everywhere and then they take time and develop the best song mode possible. It’s not about lists of features, it’s how you implement them.

For the future some sort of Overbridge without computer hardware multitrack mixer / longform recorder thing would be good but I just trust them at the moment to do whatever they want to do.

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#4951

Parameters slides are not inherently more confusing than trig conditions or trig probability/chance yet one is on all the newer line of Elektron products while the other is completely absent.

The added benefits of extra stuff is great sure, but why remove something else? Just having the option to use it, on anything other than the flagships (I know the Digitone would greatly benefit from parameter slides) would be great. Still would love an official answer on this subject as I am sure I am not the only one wondering about this omission.

2 Likes
#4952

Yeah, I agree, I just think the way it was implemented in those devices makes it confusing. Like how the octatrack has like 5 different sequencers for trig’s, recording, slide trig’s, swing, etc. I think with a little thought they could bring slide trig’s back in a way that is really intuitive. Hell they could just have a toggle on the trig page like for the LFO and filter trig’s, saying that this is a slide trig, I think that would work fairly well.

#4953

Semi hot-take: Parameter slides would actually become somewhat useful if you could change the slide curve or somehow select the locks affected. I rarely use them on the OT and could definitely live without.

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#4954

You’re taking the piss (as you often do) but let me address this. The Machinedrum was released in 2002, and Syntakt twenty years later. Of course it is better; technology has advanced, there’s so much more out there to draw on. Is it twenty years better? (Though they did make a point of saying they were inspired by the drum machines of yore, so even the MD on release might have been criticized as a retread.)

Most of us are old enough to have experienced several bands that had one or two brilliant albums and either broke up or never quite recaptured that magic. Even if the main creative forces stay at a company (and they may not have, in this case), they get older. That is not automatically a curse; I did some of my best work, educationally, when I was older. But it may not have been perceived as such; it was quiet and solid, not incandescent as I think I tried to be earlier.

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#4955

And I guess sort of core to this question is what do we value most? Something “brand new” and cutting edge with flaws? Or a polished diamond honed to perfection? Personally I find more use on a day to day basis with the more polished thing. Maybe it’s not as exciting or “legendary” in the future, but if the goal is to allow the most people to use it to make music, that seems like a worthwhile tradeoff to me.

1 Like
#4956

I absolutely LOVE parameter slides.
I don’t use them all the time but I would rather have them then not.

I’d rather have a device full of testers to learn than not.
Sure they could always improve efficiency, isn’t that the nature of new product development

#4957

Designing an Elektron device must be a TON of work.
I think of how difficult it can be to finish a track, I imagine synth design is incredibly more challenging.

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#4958

Both are useful. We just may not get both out of the same company. Or if we do, the flaws may be too great, or the perfection just a retread of something we’ve seen before (and is still available on the used market). Ultimately, if we evaluate each release on its own merits, and temper loyalty with pragmatism, there’s no need for “Company X has lost it” thoughts. What gets released is what we have. We can offer suggestions for improvement (on an existing device, if firmware permits, or on future offerings) and we can look elsewhere. I can’t claim to have been productive by most conventional measures over the last four years, and anyone who can deserves praise, considering the circumstances. But I have rewired my life, and many companies have been forced to do the same (albeit not for the same reasons). Out of that, some innovation can arise.

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#4959

Probably, and not just about Elektron either, though I have been plenty critical of Elektron at times in the past but never really noticed much challenge from what I’d think of as fanboyism.

I suppose it is all down to specific conversations and personal perceptions anyway.

I definitely agree things have changed on multiple levels for Elektron, from products to customer service, staff engagement on here, and so on, I have my own opinions about most of these some positive, some negative, some indifferent.

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#4960

Yeah, totally. I guess I really got into Elektron (despite having an Octatrack in the past) just after the Digitakt launched and there was this real community feeling when staff and the creators of the boxes we loved were engaging us on here. I miss that aspect of Elektron more than anything else. Things change tho. And my tastes have changed too.

Anyway, that’s enough out of me. Over and out.

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#4961

she’s right about the marketing that leads you to buy more than one device which can often lead to paralysis when making music but every company does this / it’s also essentially what happens with gas in general

i feel like there are valid criticisms about elektron gear (i’m not smart enough to make them myself) that can be made without clout-chasing specific people / telling the company to hire you / making it about yourself though

i would be cool with some modest updates that would provide retrigs on the dn and maybe the ability to preview trigs on the m:c lol

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#4962

That’s it, you’re hired.

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#4963

Yeah, I agree actually - I think she makes some valid points…maybe not in the most elegant way (lol) but valid points nonetheless.

Also want to high-five the Moanwank movement - another classic birthed on Elektronauts.

I was there.

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